Playing the world’s saddest song on the world’s smallest violin
A Hillsboro, Oregon man is suing the Portland police department over his arrest at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in 2014. Twenty-five year old Matthew Mglej was playing his violin naked in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Portland while quoting former Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a protest. The police showed up after receiving several complaints about the demonstration. Read More
First do no harm
The untimely death of the legendary Joan Rivers during a routine procedure took the world by surprise, including her close knit family. “The city’s medical examiner found that Joan Rivers died of brain damage due to lack of oxygen after she stopped breathing during the endoscopy. Her death was classified as a therapeutic complication”. Melissa Rivers has filed a lawsuit with the Manhattan Supreme Court alleging incompetence on behalf of the doctors, and seeks unspecified damages. According to the lawsuit the doctors mishandled this procedure, and performed a separate procedure without the consent of the patient or her family. Concern was expressed during the procedure in regards to Rivers’ breathing, this concern went unaddressed.
Quit monkeying around
A unique case is taking place in the court of appeals in New York, it is about whether chimpanzees are entitled to “legal personhood”. The defendant is 26-year-old Tommy, who is owned by a human and lives alone in what is described as a “dark, dank shed” in upstate New York. Tommy currently lives alone in a cage in a warehouse in Gloversville, New York. In December, Steven Wise, founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project, filed writs of habeas corpus on behalf of four chimpanzees he believed were wrongfully detained. Wise compared chimps to human children when Presiding Justice Karen Peters asked him about how novel his theory really was. “Hey, I’m no animal rights freak, but if we’re extending the legal fiction of corporate personhood to include religious rights, we should at least give a creature with a 99 percent DNA match the right to not be locked in a shed. The standard really isn’t that onerous. If the courts fails to get this done and based on the oral argument that seems likely legislatures should take action to protect these creatures. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for that either.”
Drive sober
A recent court ruling out of Kansas will likely lead to important changes in the way drunk driving cases are handled in the state. For years, law enforcement agencies have conducted a series of three field sobriety tests during traffic stops involving suspected drunk drivers. The failure of any one of the three tests could serve as justification for administering a breathalyzer test and for potentially making an arrest. Thanks to the Kansas Supreme Court, that will no longer be the case.
Speeding to the courtroom
While many people love the convenience of having a car appear at your doorstep at the tap of a button, it appears that those days may be numbered. The popular transportation services Uber and Lyft are headed to the courtroom, thanks to unhappy drivers. The main issue seems to center around a debate on whether or not the drivers of these services are employees or simply independent contractors. We’ve talked in the past about Uber’s problems with the law, however this series of lawsuits may force the companies to alter their business model. The lawsuits were filed in the San Francisco Federal Court and are only relevant to California-based drivers, although the results of each class-action will be closely monitored by drivers across the United States. Read more
© 2025 LAWYER.COM INC.
Use of this website constitutes acceptance of Lawyer.com’s Terms of Use, Email, Phone, & Text Message and Privacy Policies.